Use of imaging in healthcare, law enforcement, surveillance, and other fields, can be beneficial because it can lead to solutions in identification, analysis, and diagnosis techniques related to the fields. Further, pulse or heart rate monitoring techniques such as electrocardiography (ECG) are used to interpret electrical activity of a heart over a period of time. In particular, when the heart muscle depolarlizes during each heartbeat, the ECG device can detect and amplify resulting electrical changes on the skin. Electrodes are affixed to the skin of the subject via conducting gel embedded in the middle of an adhesive pad onto which cables clip. The recording that is produced, from the ECG amplification is referred to as an electrocardiogram.
Current ECG systems and techniques require the patient to be located locally to the ECG machine. In particular, the patient needs to affix the electrodes to his or her skin. However, the adhesive electrodes can cause skin irritation, discomfort, and other issues to the patient. This can especially be a problem in neonatal intensive care units (ICU), as newborns skin can be especially sensitive.
Therefore, it may be desirable to have systems and methods for non-contact cardiac pulse measurement. In particular, it may be desirable to use non-contact imaging in systems and methods for automated in-hospital and/or in-home monitoring.